U.S. Department of Transportation

After the fires were out and the dead accounted for, state regulators tasked with determining the cause of the natural gas explosion that leveled an Allentown city block ordered UGI Utilities to dig up its own pipe and find out why it failed. In addition to recovering the suspect section of 12-inch cast-iron gas main, UGI retained possession of the pipe, selected a lab to examine it and will pay for the analysis, state regulators said. Critics say the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's reliance on utilities to do the investigative legwork when disasters strike raises concerns. "The concern from the public's viewpoint is that the company may have caused the problem,...

Related "U.S. Department of Transportation" Articles

After the fires were out and the dead accounted for, state regulators tasked with determining the cause of the natural gas explosion that leveled an Allentown city block ordered UGI Utilities to dig up its own pipe and find out why it failed.
In addition...

Federal investigators, responding to a fatal gas explosion in Allentown, told UGI Corp. 19 years ago that the company probably would need to replace miles of corroding pipeline in the city to reduce the threat to public safety.
The conditions described...

Federal investigators, responding to a fatal gas explosion in Allentown, told UGI Corp. 19 years ago that the company probably would need to replace miles of corroding pipeline in the city to reduce the threat to public safety.
The conditions described...

In the aftermath of Wednesday night's cataclysmic explosion on N. 13th Street in Allentown, UGI crews tore up the street in a desperate effort to stanch the flow of natural gas through a cast-iron pipe that was installed in 1928, the year penicillin was...

As Thursday dawned, the extent of the explosion and fire in central Allentown became starkly visible: half a block reduced to cinders by a catastrophe that killed five people, displaced scores from their homes and raised fears about the soundness of the...

Handling medical waste generated by an Ebola patient proved to be one of the contingencies that U.S. hospitals were unprepared for, a top U.S. health official said on Saturday, adding that it "took longer than we would have wished" to fix the...

U.S. officials on Friday broadly defended the response to the country's first case of Ebola, although one acknowledged that while the government was confident of containing the virus, it had been "rocky" in Dallas where the patient is in...

U.S. hospitals may be unprepared to safely dispose of the infectious waste generated by any Ebola virus disease patient to arrive unannounced in the country, potentially putting the wider community at risk, biosafety experts said.
Waste management...

General Motors Co will introduce in two years its first car that can communicate with other vehicles to help avoid accidents and ease traffic congestion, Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Sunday. In the same time frame, GM also will introduce more...

A group of companies, including several large automakers, have joined a public-private research initiative to lay the groundwork for a system that wirelessly connects vehicles and helps smooth the flow of traffic, the University on Michigan said on...

The fares advertised by Southwest Airlines sounded too good to be true: $59 for flights from Atlanta to Los Angeles, Chicago or New York.
They were.
When would-be fliers tried to book the fares, they found no seats available on those routes.
The U.S....

Airline code shares may not be something most fliers care about, but the U.S. Department of Transportation thinks they should. It has proposed a new rule that would require airlines and ticket agents to clearly display the information on their...

California-based Virgin America ranked highest among the nation's top 15 carriers in a study that looked at on-time performances, customer complaints and lost bag rates, among other factors.
The study, known as the Airline Quality Rating report, also...

If you're against letting airline passengers talk on cellphones, you've gained a powerful ally.
The Global Business Travel Assn., a trade group for the world's business travelers, submitted its opposition last week to a plan by the Federal Communications...

Airline delays and cancellations have dropped significantly in the last few years. At least that's what federal statistics show. But the numbers may not be telling us the whole story.
That is one of the conclusions in a new report by the office of...

Airline delays and cancellations have dropped significantly in the last few years. At least that's what federal statistics show. But the numbers may not be telling us the whole story.
That is one of the conclusions in a new report by the office of...

Although they are statistically among the safest on the road, the number of older drivers is increasing dramatically — and with it, that group's numbers of injuries and deaths. Because of this, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway...

WASHINGTON — Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg of Minneapolis admits being both a frequent flier and a frequent complainer. He flew on Northwest Airlines about 75 times a year, domestically and internationally, earning enough miles to qualify for...

For three weeks of every year, I fear for my life.
Well, it's more accurate to say that I become highly attuned in regard to my safety while running. See, I spend some time each year in a small coastal town in south British Columbia, and the roads are...

After years of airline mergers that have dramatically reduced choices for travelers, the U.S. Justice Department has sued to halt what would be the largest airline marriage in U.S. history.
The Justice Department joined six states and the District of...